“Mendicants, when these three perceptions for ascetics are developed and cultivated theyfulfill seven things. What three? ‘I have secured freedom from class.’ ‘My livelihood is tiedup with others.’ ‘My behavior should be different.’ When these three perceptions forascetics are developed and cultivated they fulfill seven things.
What seven? Their deeds and behaviour are always consistent with the precepts. They're content, kind-hearted, and humble. They want to train. They use the necessities of life after reflecting on their purpose. They’re energetic. When those three perceptions for ascetics are developed and cultivated they fulfil these seven things.”
We are using the term in a different way as explained below.
The Buddha often lay down Vinaya rules in response to criticism by lay people of some uninspiring behaviour of some monastics. Now that the Buddha is no longer alive, and thus the Vinaya is not going to be expended due to new technologies, situations etc. There's plenty of areas beyond the Vinaya which are sort of encouraged or enforced by different monastic communities. I call these extra Vinaya. Since they are technically not in the Vinaya, these extra Vinaya rules or behaviours cannot land monastic in offences, except as a direct disrespect not obeying the teacher's request. And it can cause disharmony for monastics who doesn't want to follow the local communities standards.
I will lay down a training rule for the following ten reasons: for the well-being of the Sangha, for the comfort of the Sangha, for the restraint of bad people, for the ease of well-behaved monks, for the restraint of corruptions relating to the present life, for the restraint of corruptions relating to future lives, to give rise to confidence in those without it, to increase the confidence of those who have it, for the longevity of the true Teaching, and for supporting the training.
The confidence part I worded it as inspiring vs uninspiring.
“Good, Upasena. One should not lay down new rules, nor should one get rid of the existing ones. One should practice and undertake the training rules as they are.
So these extra Vinaya questions cannot be enforced onto any monastics as new rules, but just for the sake of knowledge of monastics to be able to see what's the public's perception of what's appropriate for monastics and what's less appropriate. This also includes monastics' perception towards other monastics, so you can suggest more survey questions as well.
The google form below is not the survey. I am just gathering the questions for now. Hopefully the real survey will not have too many questions, but still, I am gathering them and sorting them based on repetition etc. You can suggest up to 3 questions, if you wish to suggest more, fill up the form again after submitting it. Please word your questions clearly or leave your contact should you wish for me to be able to contact you to clarify your questions.
These questions should be extra Vinaya, so if anything is already covered by the Vinaya, it'll not be in the survey.
https://suttacentral.net/pitaka/vinaya/pli-tv-vi Do read the Vinaya should you wish to know if your question is already covered by the Vinaya. Or try your luck, I wouldn't select the ones already covered by the Vinaya.
When wording your questions, please use the gender neutral term: monastics including Bhikkhu, Bhikkhuni, Samanera, Samaneri, Sikkhamana. For the purpose of the survey, we will only focus on Theravada monastics. Using money and eating dinner are clearly against the Vinaya, and thus are not considered a suitable question for this survey on extra Vinaya.
Example of questions:
- A vegan monastic.
- Monastics saying “Jesus Christ” as a strong expression of disbelief, dismay, awe,disappointment, pain, etc.
- Monastics giving nicknames to fellow monastics. Eg. Ven. Noodles (to monks who eat instant noodles), Ven. Tea (for monks who likes to drink tea).
- Monastics who tell jokes as part of a Dhamma Talk.
- Monastics driving a car. (Vinaya border questions are allowed, where different communities may interpret the rules differently.)
In the real survey, there'll be 5 multiple choice options for each questions as follows.
Very inspiring
Inspiring
Neutral
Uninspiring
Very uninspiring
